Shooting sports have experienced an explosion in technology. It’s almost a full-time job trying to keep up. All the new products available can create a lot of confusion. How do you know which innovations are legitimate or if someone is selling you snake oil?

Don’t take anyone else’s word. Do the testing yourself.

Each piece of your equipment/gear is unique, like a fingerprint. What works for me likely will not work for the next person. There is no one-size-fits-all for this sport.

Getting my gear to perform at its full potential was a lengthy and frustrating process. A large part of this was due to technology and, quite frankly, inexperience on my part.

Not having a dependable way to measure results didn’t help either, and I certainly wasn’t alone. In addition, I kept getting bombarded with contradicting information from all angles. Then, some proper measuring tools finally hit the shelves. They were reliable, and you didn’t have to sell your firstborn child to pay for them.

Now I can cut through the BS and find solutions independently. Well, there’s that, and I have some mentors that are masters of the trade. I can now accomplish what used to take months in a matter of days:

“In God we trust, and all others bring their data.”

How to do the testing yourself:

I recommend purchasing the measuring tools before acquiring what you want to test. Think about it. How can you build a house without a measuring tape? The same principle applies other than the house-exploding-in-your-face thing.

Example: Let’s say you’re developing the perfect powder charge for your load.

First, you need a top-end chronograph. Second, you need a precise way of measuring your powder weight. Lacking those two requirements, you are taking a somewhat educated guess.

When you have good velocity numbers from the chronograph at a specific charge weight, you can then measure your target group sizes.

Don’t attempt this process in reverse order unless you want to waste a lot of time and accomplish nothing. If that makes you all tingly inside, go for it. Also, don’t go beyond 100 yards at first. I wrote an entire article about this (click here) to read it.

Self-testing is the perfect way to find out what works for you. I think one of the most useful tools is a chronograph. That one piece of equipment alone can tell you almost everything you need to know. Testing is a process of elimination.

When it comes to precision shooting, cheap is not always better. Spend the money up-front, and never look back. More than once, I have cringed at the price while purchasing equipment/gear. I’m not going to lie; I was so happy with the results that I would do it again.

“If you want to keep up with the best, you have to become the best.”

Discovering what works is a part of this game. It is just as much about intelligence as it is about skill. Doing your own testing is an essential part of this sport.

I know someone will get salty and say something like, “You don’t test anything. Your mentors do it all for you.” That’s not true. I even test the information they give to me. Again, my gear will be slightly different. Honestly, if I didn’t re-test, they would probably think I was an idiot, and they wouldn’t be wrong.

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